The first idea of
this digital sculpture came to me in 2006, for 2
reasons. First, because, in my opinion, an artist must look at his time
with a lucid mind, and especially an artist who uses the tools of his
time. There is an artistic tradition, that is not just in the Western
culture, which invites us to contemplate "the spectacle of nature". But
since the Industrial Revolution, this spectacle has changed! A Claude
MONET today may well find plastic bags or cans of Cola in the flowery
scenery! He would decide to remove these incongruous objects on his
painting? Not sure!

The art and poetry have much in common. One of them
is particularly to highlight what everyone has in front of the eyes,
that everyone has got used to not see. In poetry, a word used in a
strange place in the verse, restores its consistency that had been
forgotten, or gives it another meaning. It's the same when an artist
uses familiar images or objects, of which he disrupts the order and
presence.

The irresponsibility and the cynicism with which the powerful people of
our modern world are playing with our environment and our planet gave
me a vision of a crumpled Earth, carelessly thrown into an ashtray -
mapped by pictures of polluted sites, pictures that I found on
Wikimedia.
I created with the FormZ software the first version of my sculpture,
with in mind the idea of a levitating globe above the ashtray, because
a friend showed me a new electromanetic levitating device, recently
developed by a French inventor. But I was forced to conclude that, for
the desired size, this system would be too expensive, and perhaps
inefficient because of the weight of the crumpled sphere. Anyway, I
called this work TERRORDURE / RUBBISHEARTH, using a word game that
works equally well in English and French : TERRE + ORDURE
<=> EARTH + RUBBISH .

I never abandoned the project, and a few years later, being always
vigilant with respect to new 3D printing machines, I discovered the
existence of the Mcor IRIS process. So I decided in 2012 to change the
3D model of the sculpture, and now using Rhino software, I added 4 feet
to the "ashtray". These feet provide an intellectual precision at the
work: they are mapped with the symbols of the major international
currencies. The picture is clear: it is an outspoken criticism of the
international financial system.

I must precise that the second version of TERRORDURE / RUBBISHEARTH has
been specially created for the Mcor IRIS machine. First, simply
because, as a digital sculptor, I want to see the possibilities of the
new devices. Then, deeper, because this machine is more environmentally
friendly than most other 3D printers, insofar as it uses paper for
building the parts. I think the technology is not incompatible with
ecology, but it is unreasonable to defend respect for the humankind and
its environment... with methods and materials that contribute to the
pollution !

I had to wait almost 4 years before I can realize this work, because I
could not find a reliable partner who owns the machine and who wants to
support an art project. Finally, it is the company Mcor Technologies
itself that became interested in this project, and has decided to make
the sculpture. This was a great fortunate because the Mcor team did a
very thorough job, very faithful to the 3D color file (VRML) of my
work. The shapes are obviously correct, the color balance is good. My
only criticism is about the density of black, not 100%
complete. The ink absorbsion by the
(white) paper could cause this slight
problem of contrast, but it turns out that it is rather a matter of
adjustment of the machine.
About my work here, it's not an issue. Only the
eye of the artist can detect such subtleties.

In general, one must say that the 3D color printing is confronted with
the same problems as conventional printing. Color calibration is a
headache! And the situation is not better with computer
renderings/images/animations : each monitor or video-projector has its
own color temperature, luminosity, contrast, etc. (By the bye, this
problem is usually ignored by the promoters of video/digital art, among
others). Moreover, specially in the case of a materialized sculpture,
lighting conditions also play an important role - even if the work is
monochrome. To return to the 3D printing of a color digital sculpture,
we must mention one last point: the surface finish, ie, in this case,
applying a varnish. Whether matte or glossy, its main quality must be
to protect the colors without dulling them.
Here we address a particular point relating to works of art: the
designer or the architect usually don't care about the life of models
they produce - simply intended to validate a concept. On the contrary,
the artist wants a permanent object, not crumbling, not falling apart,
not losing its radiance in a few months or years ! This is a true
challenge for 3D printing, and we hope that the Mcor IRIS process will
be successful in this field.

The special needs of the artist make fruitful collaboration with
research and industry. I think we need more artists in the R &
D offices ! The process Mcor IRIS, used for my sculpture TERRORDURE /
RUBBISHEARTH is satisfactory for me. It may encourage other artists to
try it. Some will say this is a marginal use of industrial machines:
big mistake! Race cars, haute couture creations, innovations elitist,
they all ends up to generate or to improve the usual objects of our
everyday environment.